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Brad Pitt’s latest movie scrapped just days before filming starts

Brad Pitt's newest movie has been scrapped just days before it was due to start filming.

Pitt was set to star in Steven Soderbergh's $50-million-plus baseball drama Moneyball, but Columbia Pictures pulled the plug just before cameras started rolling.

The news stunned Hollywood as movies are rarely scrapped so close to production - and especially ones with major names like Pitt attached.

"Pulling the plug this close to production is extremely rare for studios," the Hollywood Reporter stated. But sources said Columbia's co-chairman Amy Pascal wasn't comfortable with the script, which had changed considerably since the movie was green-lit.

"The decision, which was made on Friday, mystified many since the pic was crewed up and scheduled to start shooting this week, with some wondering how issues with the script could give a studio cold feet so late in the game."

Another insider said: "It shows that there's no such thing as a sure thing, even in Hollywood."

Based on Michael Lewis's nonfiction book about the Oakland Athletics and their general manager Billy Beane - who put together a star Major League team despite a lack of a major bank account - the script was by Soderbergh and screenwriter Steven Zaillian.